one of the most awesome things i’ve ever autographed

When I was at the Phoenix Comicon, a girl came up to me on the first day and asked me if I'd sign this present she was making for her boyfriend: a papercraft d20.

She was taking it around the con and getting a few people she thought he'd like to sign it for him, and I was on the list. I needed to run around in a circle the way my dog runs around in a circle when she's excited for a biscuit, because I was just blown away by how cool this idea was, and how cool the whole thing would be when it was assembled.

I'm not sure if you can see, but I'm next to the Superman "S". I wrote, "Hope your birthday is a critical success!" Because, um, well, if I have to explain why, I don't think you could fully understand why this is one of the most awesome geek gifts ever delivered.

Here's the catch: I wasn't allowed to mention it on my blog or on Twitter, because I guess he reads them both, and his birthday was after the con. Since it's been delivered, and the images are online, I think it's safe for me to go ahead and share this, in the hopes that other boyfriends and girlfriends of geeks will do something similar. Speaking as a gaming geek, this is one of the most thoughtful, unexpected, truly awesome things one of us can get.

Damn straight it is..
Though I was next to you two, talking with Erin Grey when she came up to you. I respected that she didn’t want me around to spoil it and made a hasty retreat.
/me bows
thank you verry much for it, and I’ve checked it likes to roll critical successes against my players.

My dad is both an adventure computer game fanatic and unable to play any of them without a full walkthrough. (He loves the art and stories, hates the puzzles.) This goes back to buying a 300 baud modem exclusively for calling the Sierra hint BBS on a Coco, capturing the stream of text from the terminal, and printing it out on a dot-matrix printer; he’d have me format them as walkthroughs in WordPerfect, hole-punch them and slot them into those blue report folders with a clear plastic cover. (I was friggin’ 7! Child labor!)
For one of his more recent birthdays, I bought him a few games – I don’t even remember which ones – and hid them. The only wrapped present he got was a detailed walkthrough that sent him around the house and backyard looking for clues and items to combine in arbitrary and overly difficult ways. I think the last one was to get scraps of wire from behind the dryer, watch batteries and a broken key-chain light to see in the unlit closet where the games were stashed – that sort of stuff.
He still talks about that, and I think he’s forgotten the games he got from it, too.

swooning
I have to admit in reflection that the “child labor” led me to embrace computers and word processors, which has come in handy in a career as a copy editor. So yeah, the more I think about it, it is pretty damn awesome.

Now that is nerd love for certain.
Your comment on it is great. Probably the most appropriate thing you could put on there all things considering.
Todd McFarlane only signed his name. Lame Todd, very lame… well looking at it again Todd does sign his name there in a pretty cool way. I’ll allow it.

I think Wil meant your walkthrough gifting was awesome and I definitely agree. Not that modeming at 300 baud isn’t geeky and nostalgic, but it isn’t quite as terrific as making your Dad’s birthday into an adventure game.

Wow-what a creative gift! My husband would have loved it if I did this. It would almost make up for yelling, “lightening bolt, lightening bolt” when he goes for his dice. =) I wish I’d seen this at Christmas when I was doing my “gifts for geeks” Roundup. All the signatures are what totally make it though. Love what you wrote Wil.

OMG! That is the most awesome thing EVER! I can’t get over what a great gift this is. I’d say this was a critical success.
OMG, I have to go calm down. I’d die of happiness if I ever got this. Way cool!

I’d just got done wandering around cakewrecks.com and you were next in my rss reader. My first thought was what a cool (and very intricate) cake design! Still cool as a D20 idea but would be even better as a birthday cake. I want @wilw to sign my next birthday cake, srsly.

I just saw this http://code.google.com/p/pocketwit/ and wondered if you knew that your Twitter icon (and apparently a message from you!)appears on a screenshot for the PocketPC Pocketwit Download/Instruction page.
Apologies if I’m incredibly late to the party on this one….I’ll show myself out and strike my name from all other invite lists……

I left this comment on LJ and someone kindly reminded me that that was just an RSS feed.
Geeks do the coolest things for their beloveds. After my husband proposed, he presented this as an engagement gift. The week before we’d been at Dragoncon and he’d gotten a lot of the guests to sign. Sadly you were not there that year, so it is still a step away from geeky perfection. I’m new to TypePad and not sure if the link will work. So here’s the long form, just in case;“>http://woodwardiocom.livejournal.com/484640.html

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